work, work, decisions, work. I recently had a short facebook chat with thashi, preparing for another round of exams in the UK. a sobering reminder to stop and relax, just for a while. five-hour marathon for Term Paper 1 last night shall not be repeated in the near future, especially when the due date's a week away.

YGH YGH YGH.

on a more lighthearted note, welcome j1s! don't sit at the a01c class table or get stuck in the lifts (:

Three years ago, we were searching for an RS project. Your research topic was interesting and unusual, so we asked- and you accepted us. Over the next two years, you patiently guided us through the project, treating us very nicely even though there were times we procrastinated (I wondered if you regretted taking us on?) and changed our focus repeatedly.

Eventually we managed to complete our research and also create our very own children's storybook- the only copy we printed, we gave to you. Even now when I come across storybooks I think back to 2007-2008. You were an excellent mentor. I'm recalling all the small but nice things you did- showing us a certain higher-up's storybook collection, giving us sweets and chocolates, and a particularly memorable joke, one that brings a smile to my face as i'm typing this now. The odd corner classroom where we had our consultations, with the noisy air-conditioner and ancient computer.

The last time I saw you, last year when I went back during a guides session, you asked me about my subject combination and I was telling you about ELL. Oh, how ironic that I signed up for a possible storybook-writing ELL project just last week, and then I received the terrible news today.

Ms Low Wai Lin, thank you for making my upper secondary RS project a very enjoyable one. You never taught me in the traditional sense, but you remain one of my most favourite teachers.

Rest in peace.

1. Drink a glass of soya bean milk.
2. Take antibiotics.
3. Walk to bus stop.
4. Miss all six buses I can take to various MRT stations, sit at bus stop feeling nervous (LATE FOR SCHOOL??)
5. Board 158 feeling very relieved that I am not going to be late.
6. Realize that the nervous feeling is in fact Nausea.
7. Throw up when the bus is nearing the bus stop, to the horror of everyone on the bus.
8. Collapse on the bus stop bench, frantically clean up (thank god for wet tissues) feeling very miserable and sick, wishing that the EARTH WILL SWALLOW ME UP NOW bus had gone a bit faster.
9. Hope that I will never see that bus driver again, though I want to apologize for making him clean up! Will not take the 7.05-7.15am bus for the next few years, possibly until I have children.
10. Realize that there was a freaking batchmate on the bus who completely ignored me and went to the mrt. What a compassionate and caring person. Or maybe he thought I was having morning sickness or like, tuberculosis.
11. Discover I was not wearing my school badge so maybe, just maybe people will think i'm from TKSS which shares the exact same uniform.
12. Go home and wash everything that was contaminated, feel depressed for the rest of the day :/

Moral of the Story: EAT SOLID FOOD BEFORE TAKING MEDICATION THAT SAYS 'TAKE WITH FOOD, MAY CAUSE NAUSEA'.

I will be nice, kind, generous and forgiving.
I will not procrastinate.
(Forgiving doesn't mean re-forming my opinion tabula rasa)

p.s. happy birthday charlene! :D

it doesn't feel like 2009's over yet, and i'm still drafting the end-of-year post.
just a short update for now.
school starts on monday. I haven't touched h2 math for the entire holidays and I have to go for the math test on friday.
am I screwed? of course. but one week is not enough to cover an entire year's worth of math...so I'll just see how low i'll score :D

work is coming to an end!!! did my presentation today, just polish up the report tomorrow and bid farewell to 512 thomson road (for now).

I wish my bedroom looked like this though in a different colour scheme (:

a long post is in progress, but i'll leave that for next year.
see you next decade!

boxing day: not-really-a-class party at shide's house.
shimin, kexin and I bought all the food from kovan and later cooked ham cabonara pasta and chicken&mushroom soup for the others :D the guys were completely baffled as to why we didn't just order food in (the host himself has never cooked in his own kitchen...) they are going to die in ns/uni if they don't learn to cook soon.
& as usual there was mahjong, wii, cards and camwhoring (photos on facebook! miss lim's comment was hilarious) for nine hours straight- wonder what class chalet will be like?

monday: dinner at NYNY with poon's running commentary on the people walking by, shaping cotton candy into facial hair and asking the its-my-first-day waiter for more. poor guy, though he'll have an interesting story to share now. cryst and I wandered through esplanade where we found this quirky shop with a height comparison chart. I am as tall as the average 12-year-old kid or 2cm shorter than charles & diana's wedding cake, which is very reassuring. I bought three postcards to add to my collection, finally filling up this empty three-panel photo frame on my wall, and my mum will cease the nagging on that issue.

been feeling extremely sleepy in the office post-christmas...maybe i should start the caffeine. renyan's tea yesterday & wencen's suggestion of teh-bing today were very tempting.

merry christmas everyone <3

thank you, shiqi for inviting us to your church services- I really enjoyed lunch & the christmas musical today.

it's not just the year that's drawing to a close- its the first decade of the new millennium.

I need a new mouse.
Christmas is tomorrow.
*hinthint*
The Mouse has decided that one button press = double and triple clicks. It would be good for certain games but not when i'm attempting to rush out designs for YGH.

This computer has been around for 5 years and it's still going strong, (due to obsessive defragmenting, registry cleanup, deleting hidden files) though my graphics card sucks. I can run photoshop & illustrator CS3 and sims 2 even though it crashes sometimes.

I have been shopping for clothes and more clothes. The sales everywhere are fantastic, I can buy all my clothes now and stop shopping next year to mug instead (y).

Cryst and I have started a spot-the-ugliest-topshop-product activity. Yesterday we came across this oversized basketball net that they call a dress, selling for 100+. It can't beat the dead-bunny-on-each-foot shoes though.

on a random note, i'd always thought copenhagen was bound to fail. it's just a sheer waste of money, resources and don't forget the carbon emissions due to representatives flying in from across the globe.

1. today- i walked behind a hand-holding RJ couple for half the route to work (sec1 classmate and weird guy who were going up to someone's hdb flat at 8.15am), nearly attacked by the mcys monkeys, had lunch with the other rj interns at j8, watched planet51 with jermaine after work and walked around looking at all the consumerist christmas preparations in/outside orchard ion.

2. tuesday's work- a visit to the YOG HQ, visitor centre decor is really good :) and then a stop by dempsey, Dome's affogato? is really delicious one day i shall make it at home hehe

3. monday- jermaine came by with wendy's burgers- she was covering the opening of its first of 35 outlets in singapore, the joys of an SPH intern ;) a nice lunch at HDB hub and the taxi rides to and fro were so comfortable :D thank you!

4.sunday- movie marathon at dom's house that became a cemetery visit, mahjong and monopoly session until after dark and a delicious dinner (ooh, the alliterative possibilities). stayed for the first movie- wished i could stay overnight but there was the tiny issue of WORK ): ):

friday: nigel & edward kept calling me on friday at work. finally contacted them & found out csl xmas concert only started at 7...oops. that meant i could go down though. met them at amk where they had spent hours discovering its beauty. concert was completely unexpected- the concert turned out to be quite formal, a kindergarten graduation and there was a worship session by the sponsoring church. a little awkward until it came to the resident kids' time to shine! prize presentations for grades & behavior (waynechan will be so proud of his...protege) and roles in the musical. J & D & SK very cute! A & S made speeches- i'm glad they are fine after all that happened :)

decided not to eat the post-concert food & walked to chompchomp instead. hokkien mee and bbq wings- my favourites.

shide lent me his sat prep book before he left to eat kimchi in korea and gamble in macau, and i finally sat (pun unintended) down today to start on it. its doable but tedious and makes me drowsy. still don't know why i'm taking it- 'for fun' is the first reason to come to my mind :/

it's been an amazing past week (:

the cruise was fantastic- lots of food & entertainment & a very nice bed. there was a short KL trip where I managed to buy quite a few things. photographs on facebook.

interact cookingday on saturday where there were very few kids & only one group visited my station. spent the time playing in the hodgelodge and blasting music. headed down to PS with jan & huijun after lunch. deborah discovered us in daiso, how coincidental is that?! we camwhored in spotlight & I watched them eat crepes later on.

shopping with cryst at ion orchard today. it was very productive & fun yay lets go shop more next time :D i've been spending lots of money on work clothes for internship which starts on tuesday...just hope the allowance (if there's one) will cover it + enough money for food & transport!!

headed down to bishan to find shiqi, who wanted to pass me sth:

( a pretty awesome birthday present from shiqi & shide! )

past week has been fun even though its been raining non-stop

tuesday- nlb to borrow library books (: played the word game heheh. shared my umbrella with random strangers on the way home, the last being a 9th-floor neighbour by coincidence! shoes were soaked through, had to wear my new pair to school on wed (which was just cca, no lessons lol)

thursday after lessons, watched my-girlfriend-is-an-agent which is much more lighthearted than my sister's keeper, a hilarious movie even though the plot was very weak. went back to sch to meet some interactors for service...and found out there wasn't. oops. so we explored serangoon gardens in the rain and ended up at chompchomp where we ate satay & random stuff yummy good food :D took buses home with waynechan- discovered that day its impossible to shelter someone 31cm taller than me :X

and, today! ponned 'slight fever' in the morning then went to school for STEAMBOAT LUNCH. pam & weifeng brought portable stoves & pots, and a01c went shopping in ntuc for foooood. cooked in the canteen, prepared food at the wash areas hehe everyone was staring in envy and disbelief. I recall one teacher's double-take when she realized what we were doing. some friends dropped by to share the food- we had a lot of leftovers. hahah first steamboat in rj history probably (zomg i miss outdoor cooking in rg!!)

SOMEONE STOLE MY UMBRELLA FROM MY BAG WHILE I WAS HAVING STEAMBOAT ): that person opened my bag where my wallet & handphone pouch was stored! thank god its still with me! i guess he/she must have been desperate but is it necessary to resort to such measures D: only discovered the theft when i was walking home from the bus stop in the rain...soaked. again. LOL I FAIL AT LIFE HUILING WAS HOLDING ON TO IT FOR ME

dinner & 2012 laterr (:

just walked home through the mother of all flash floods, sheltering a maid who was carrying bags of groceries from the bus stop to the blocks of flats. she turns out to be a 9th floor neighbour heh.
completely soaked and I hope my shoes can dry in time for tomorrrow (:

was just looking at photos of the sec 4 bio option this year- we were sitting at the exact same pavilion in botanic gardens last year! and they took a photo of mr chia in a similar pose to the one I took last year lol. nostalgia...

school's restarting tmr, math lecture first block so cannot oversleep ):
i don't have lessons on wednesday but there's interact in the afternoon so i'll still have to go to sch sigh

on the bright side, my brother won the mcdonald's voucher- buy 2 get 2 free on board superstar virgo, which my mum decided was a good enough offer for a last-minute cruise booking. i'll be ponning the last two days of school :D

 PW IS OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER LIFE IS FULL OF SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS

it rained during OP, and when we came out, the sun was shining!!!!!

rj240: well done (: (:

(wish i could have gone for guides farewell today!!!)

MSK with half my pw group & random classmates sobs non-stop, but the girls were having a feast on junk food yumyum :P

q&a: how can your action plan (financial education for youth) be applied to less developed countries in the region?
haha tell me how you would answer that -.-

Yesterday afternoon was the House of Steamboat  at bugis with shimin, kexin, dom and shide, soup was really good! I really love the beef yumyum we should go for another soon :D Met up with the other classmates to shop for drinks & snacks, then headed to sentosa for Spooktacular! Queued for more than 2 hours in wet weather, but it was fun taking photos with the spirits (lol burger patty and red paint stains) and looking at people who were all dressed up in various costumes (hot legs sailormoon crossdresser zomg!!!) ((:  

The actual haunted house was more amusing than scary- I was having a fun time watching classmates get freaked out (by me too, when i decided to sit around random spots, tired from standing for so long, while chatting with the haunted house characters). Kexin was screaming her head off. And looking on as Peranakan Ghost stroked shimin was very funny hehe sorry but I AM NOT A PSYCHOPATH. I was just trying to make the most of it :P

Those staying over reached Siloso beach at like 1am, and I'm so glad the wave house shop opens til so late because my slippers broke. Set up camp opposite the toilets near cafe del mar. We surrounded ourselves with a ring of tealights, its superbly pretty!! cards & random stuff throughout the whole morning, pretty much alone on that stretch of beach. burger pillow is awesome heh. Didn't get to watch sunrise though ):

Vivo for breakfast then home, managed to wash the groundsheets and take a much-needed shower before I crashed for the entire afternoon.

ALL THE BEST to those taking Chinese A's tomorrow! especially those who stayed over -.^ 

 tuition kid cancelled on me (bet she wanted to go out & play too) so I slacked the whole day at home-
did some photoshop stuff- new blog layout! and something else ;)

i've got a sore throat and cough for the past few days...
op dry run on friday was expected- as usual I screw up my own part because I cannot do public speaking for nuts, need to get it up to standard by 11 November.

shopping with shiqi after that before heading back to bishan to play badminton with the class & dinner at s11.

promos results on monday; doomsday